Thinkware F770 Dashcam comes with a default memory card size of 16GB which is hardly enough for a couple of days if you’re continuously recording parking footage. Though the official support claims support of only up to 64GB, getting non Thinkware branded cards to work on this camera can be a hit or miss.
I have had great success with a variety of large capacity MicroSD cards from SanDisk High Endurance cards (256GB, 128GB as well as 64GB), SanDisk Extreme (256GB, 128GB as well as 64GB) and Samsung Evo / Evo Plus MicroSD cards (256GB, 128GB as well as 64GB).
Before you try these cards, please download the latest firmware from Thinkware site https://www.thinkware.com/Support/Download (f770_5_1.00.09) as of this writing. Also, download your latest Speed Cam data according to your country.
The first time you insert any of these cards, the dashcam won’t recognize these cards and will prompt you to format the memory card. Continue with the prompt and format the memory card from the camera itself. The card will now have it formatted in FAT32 and the necessary files copied from the ROM. Upon reboot, the camera won’t recognize the card anymore and will continue to prompt to format the card again or will go on an endless loop of “Memory Card Error, Restarting the camera”.
Steps:
- Remove the memory card from the camera, insert the memory to a card reader connected to a PC running Microsoft Windows or Linux.
- Copy the content from the memory card over to your desktop or a folder of your choice.
- Download and install a Disk Partitioning Tool (I prefer Mini Tool Partition Wizard which is free on Windows https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html)
- Select your card and remove all the existing partitions.
- Before creating a new partition, you need to have some unallocated space on the card. I typically leave a 16MB unallocated space for cards below 64GB and 32 MB unallocated space for cards above 64GB and up to 256GB.
- Create a new partition after the unallocated space.
- For any cards above 64GB, format the partition with exFAT.
- For any cards up to 64GB the allocation unit size should be 32KB and any size greater than 64GB and up to 256GB the file allocation unit size should be 128KB. This is important for the card to get recognized correctly by the camera. (Refer the table below)
- Once the format is completed, copy the necessary files back from your desktop / folder to the memory card.
- Once copied, go to the folder named “driveinfo” and replace the existing file named “smartguidepoint.dx2” with the latest downloaded Speed Cam data from Thinkware site.
- If you want the camera to stop reminding you to regularly format your memory card, go to the “Setting” folder.
- Edit the file “SDCARD_FORMAT_TIME.bin” with Notepad or a file editor.
- The Date / Time format in the file content will be YYYYMMDD (Example: 20200902)
- Edit this date to a date in the future (Example: 20221231) which will be 31st of December 2022.
- Save and Exit.
- Insert the memory card in to the Dash cam and it should recognize the card and start working straight away.
| SD Card Size | File System | Allocation Unit Size |
| 16GB | FAT32 | 32kb |
| 32GB | FAT32 | 32kb |
| 64GB | ExFAT | 64kb |
| 128GB | ExFAT | 128kb |
| 256GB | ExFAT | 128kb |
What is the significance of Step 5 re: unallocated space?
To align the partition.
No luck for me with Samsung Pro Endurance 256GB. The F770 eventually returns to the endless loop of “Memory Card Error, Restarting the camera”. Is Step 5 re: unallocated space specific to this application, or true in general for using microSD cards?
It’s true in general for most MicroSD due to partition alignments.
Were you able to get this working? I have an F770 and was thinking about getting the Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB card. The Thinkware 64 GB is enough for me capacity-wise and hasn’t given me any problems, except for the annoying reminder to format (which I can now fix thanks to this article).
Mine was running fine with a 128GB Samsung Pro Endurance Card.
Cool, I just ordered one.
I don’t have to do that 10 step process in formatting and partitioning this card right? The card is working fine from what I can see.
If it works just fine, leave it as it is. Once you format it, use this method to format. But that’s for Thinkware and I don’t have that issue with FineVu.
Hello, bit late to the discussion. Tried a Sandisk max endurance 256GB. It works using the guidance above or in fact formating it similarly to the original Thinkware 32GB sd card i.e. FAT32 with one partition and no unallocated space. Problem is I can’t then
format the 256GB SD in the F770. As soon as I do it reverts back to this looped error of needing to format card. Is this normal, you cannot use the f770 to format the bigger cards and they can only be formatted in a computer etc to allow them to continue to work? Can you format a 128GB in the F770 or is it only 64Gb and below? Can the Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB be formatted in the F770 and continue to work?
As far as I remember correctly, it worked fine formatting upto 128GB within camera but that too with selected memory cards mostly from Sandisk High Endurance cards. However, anything bigger than that, I had to format it in my PC and use it on my camera.